Yea, I mill to 15, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50 mm commonly now. Nice round numbers.
Yea, I mill to 15, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50 mm commonly now. Nice round numbers.
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The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...
Two months ago I downloaded a measured drawing from the UK. The measurements were metric, so I thought I'd give it a try. I found it sooooo much easier to use than Imperial. It just makes more sense, and (for me) 1mm as the smallest unit is about right for the kind of work I do.
I have enough measuring tools with metric....except the adhesive rulers on my tablesaw and bandsaw.
One of the things I converted, going from Imperial to Metric, was my Incra TS-LS Positioner. I initially bought it in Imperial and bought the retrofit kit about 18 months later. Here's a video of me doing the conversion https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkyRYVj6aL0
Yes the increments are slightly finer on the 1/32" Imperial system, but when I'm cutting on the table saw, really do I try and make something with an initial size that needs a partial millimeter. So if it needs to be 405mm, that's where my fence gets set.
But as you know, one of the nice things about the Incra, you can dial in or out, thousandths of an inch or 1/10's of a millimeter, which for wood, on a tablesaw gets you there.
As part of my metric conversion, I bought a 300mm, 600mm and 1000mm steel rulers from Amazon. I like these as they have very easy to read markings and have conversion tables on the rear.
For tape measures, I use a FastCap flat metric unit. Again the scale is very easy to read.
I bought an iGaging digital caliper when I first started my serious hobby woodworking, about 5 years ago. It was about $30 and I've not really found any real inaccuracy issues with it to date.
But see, I never use math to do this. I use dividers. Either that or I hold a scale at an angle so there is an appropriate number if divisions and pick the appropriate whole division. I was thinking that in my woodworking, I rarely use math. I mostly use alternative layout methods.
much thanks Chris. I'm looking at getting the incra router table., that's why i was asking about the lead screw differences. I'll take a look at those other tools you mentioned. I need to get some kind of metric T-square and triangle too.
What dividers are these? can you post a link, or photo?
Difficult move to metric if you have been using Imperial all your life. I built a cabinet to hold some Festool drawers recently, and had to build in metric. Got to have a metric tape measure and ruler.
I also subscribe to a UK woodworking magazine called Furniture and Cabinetmaking, and most projects are in metric. There are also conversion charts to aid in going from inches to millimeters.
Good luck and have fun.
what type of story sticks do you use? are you talking about the woodpecker ones? I thought story sticks were much more basic, but the video i just watched is pretty sweet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-pV...ature=emb_logo
If you want to do accurate and precise furniture size woodworking use a story stick and a knife; that's as close to absolute as you will get; it is as close to idiot proof as you can get; and it is as easy as it gets.
If you want to less accurate and less precise work, mark from a ruler and even worse use a pencil
If you want to make mistakes use math.
With a story stick and a knife you wont make errors. you don't need math, you don't need rulers and calculators and you don't need to choose between decimal, fractions or millimetres.
You transfer marks with a knife and square directly from the parts.
You don't need to know what size they are.
Oh.. and one more benefit ( or deficit whichever way you want to look at it) you don't have to spend a cent. Of course if you like spending lots of money on shiny tools you wont be happy.
Machinist's rules can be had in decimal inches, from any machinist's supply -- Enco for instance. I have a six inch one, a twelve inch one, and I have 36" ones on my table saw and crosscut sled. I also have a decimal-inch ten-foot measuring tape which I bought from Lee Valley. Actually I have about five of them left. When Lee Valley briefly offered them, perhaps fifteen years ago, I bought a dozen. Some have gotten lost or damaged, and I've given some away.
I have the Woodpeckers Story Stick, had it for 3 years, think I've used it once and then it wasn't much of an advantage.
It would be the last thing I would buy again, correct that, I wouldn't buy it again.
I have lots of Woodpecker tools, most I like.